The future's bright, the future's Texas

Ok, I can't contain my excitement any longer. I have spun this one out too long, so long in fact that I think people probably already know (my family and close friends) or they just don't care, or are too busy getting on with their own lives and want just to spit it out. So here it is.

I am going to Texas.
I am going to live with Blest and be her au pair\nanny\mother's help (whatever you want to call it. I tend to go for the term au pair since that's the term that's most useful when googling to find out information about visas and all those sort of things).

We are both very excited :-)

It started with Blest and her Mum (I suppose that should be Mom) having a conversation, continued with Blest sending me an email about a 'wild and wacky idea' and all sort of went from there. We haven't got the dates and stuff finalised yet, but it's looking like it's going to be November time. In the meanwhile I've got several weddings and birthday parties to attend, as well as doing some visiting to see people that I won't see for a while, as well as, of course, the sorting of visa and flights and packing and everything. Since my sentences seem to be running on some what I think it's time to stop typing while you still have breath to read, but as you might be able to tell I'm a little excited about it :-)

Something's cooking

Blest and I have been doing some talking and have a really amazing, fantastic, brilliant, sheer genius of a plan cooking which we will release on the world in the very near future. Just watch this space. You may be in for a surprise... (Unless you know already, in which case you can gloat, so long as you don't spill the beans)

Lazin' on a sunny afternoon

We have had a lovely holiday in Cornwall and are now at my grandparents house in Cheltenham. It was slightly ironic that after two weeks of reasonable weather (read some sun but also some rain) we had what seemed to be the hottest day for a long time and had to spend it in the car driving.

We arrived yesterday evening around 5 and spent a gentle evening eating lasagne and catching up on the events of the last couple of weeks. Today we went to church this morning, and then came home to a yummy roast dinner cooked mostly by Grandma and I.

This afternoon we've had a lovely time generally being a little bit lazy. There's been knitting, reading, crossword-ing, and in the past half hour making scones. Grandma, Grandad and Mummy have all gone out to the evening service, and when they get home we'll sit down to tea. A great way to spend Sunday afternoon, if I do say so myself.

I took lots of photographs on holiday, and once I'm home again I'll start sharing them with you. (Well, once we've got another big BB clean out of the way. We have to go home tomorrow morning and spend the rest of the day cleaning, in the hope that this will be the final clean and we really will rid ourselves of them this time!)

Finally, a few answers to a few questions

Bekki and HP have both worn skirts at various points over the last two weeks. My Mum, Dad and I have not worn skirts. Although I think Mummy wore a dress at one point, and so did I actually, at the wedding I went to.

Hannah, the doll, lost an arm at some point in her life, and complicated surgery was performed on her to no avail. She continued to life a reasonably happy life for a fair few years, but has since gone to the great doll heaven.

Kevin the BB man did arrive, and did respray in both affected rooms. As he left he told us that only 2% of people have to have a third treatment, so we are hoping that we will be in the majority.

If there were any other questions, please ask them again and I'll try to answer them in the next month or so.

Holiday Hello

Just checking in to say we are alive and enjoying our holiday. Today it's sunny, but we have had a fair bit of rain as well! That's about all I've got time for as it's past lunchtime and I'm hungry.

Post written with the help of Padstow Tourist Information's wireless internet access and Bekki's need to check out some quotations for her OU essay. Oh, and the help of the laptop which she has on longterm loan whilst its owner is in Indonesia.

so long and thanks for all the fish

I had several different posts floating around in my head hoping to make it out onto the blog, but time has defeated me. First thing tomorrow the rest of the family are off down to Cornwall, and shortly after I will head off too. I'm going to Whitney to the marriage of two friends from church, then staying overnight with my grandparents in Cheltenham, and on Sunday will be heading to join the rest of my family in Cornwall.
No idea if I'll have chance for internet access while I'm there, so I'll see you when I see you....

Day 24 in the bed bug house

4.12 pm

David is the only housemate out at work.

Elly, HP and Debs are still waiting for the bed bug man to arrive.

The phone rings, and Kevin the bed bug man tells them he is going to be late.

Day 24 in the bed bug house (since the first spraying, goodness knows how long they've actually been in our house!)

12.53 pm

HP is the only housemate wearing a skirt.

Debs and HP are in the front room. Elly is in the bedroom.

Housemates are awating a respray. This will be taking place at 4 pm.

Pretty flowers

Come on, you didn't think I would find time, whilst fighting the bed bug war, to write a long post for the something-th (second, third, fourth?) day running did you?
Will try for tomorrow, but we'll have to see, and then I'm off to Cambridge for the weekend to go to the wedding of two good friends of mine, and then to see all my friends at City Church. I'll be staying with Bekki :-)

bits and bobs

Somehow it seems to have come back to me. Once again I'm constantly writing blog posts in my mind. They aren't necessarily making it from brain to blog, but it's a start. I feel like I've got things to say again. Hey, they might not make sense or be interesting to anyone but me, but after all It's My Life!

The bed bug fight goes on. When we first said we would have to wash everything I don't think we quite took in what that meant. The bottom of my wardrobe was full of bags of random stuff. Craft projects that had been begun and then put on hold for a (long) period of time. Here are some of the things we found

Endless piles of pairs of old jeans - There's a book my Mum owns called something like 'living more with less' and I love to sit and dip into it's wisdom. Basically it's a collection of ways to live more with less, for example with regard to the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the things we buy and the way we travel. I read about a mum who used the remains of old pairs of jeans to make a comforter for her son's bed, leaving on the pockets, buttons and zips to give him places to hide his treasures. I loved the idea of making something similar, and have been collecting bits of denim ever since.
I have used some of the bits to breathe life into an old pair of jeans that I wore (and gave them several reincarnations by adding patches and stuff) but unfortunately they are now too big for me. I hope to do something similar again because I loved the first pair I had.

Patchwork squares - HP and I went through a patchworking phase and made duvet covers for each of us, and one for Bekki. I think we also made some cushion covers too. And then we made some more squares and bits to make squares (halves, thirds, quarters, sixths and ninths) and then pretty much stopped. This week we've been rediscovering all those bits and had the joy of washing them. To go in the machine we just stuck them in one of those string bags you wash tights in to keep them safe, and that would have been ideal for putting in the dryer. Except we don't have a dryer, so each little bit has been pegged out on the line, in between all the larger items we've been washing. I get the feeling my Mum wouldn't mind if she never saw a small square of fabric ever again, or any thing that needed washing for that matter.

kites - We discovered we had the bits of at least four different kites in there. Two of them we decided could just go straight in the bin, but the other two we have kept and plan to take on holiday with us to try out.

Esther - Now before you get worked up and suggest we've been keeping a person locked up in there, I'll explain. Esther was my dolly when I was a girl. Bekki had a doll called Hannah, who unfortunately is not longer with us. Esther, however, is still here, although she is looking a little worse for wear. This week we have lovingly washed all her clothes, including the six layers worth she was wearing in the cupboard - I suppose we didn't want her to get too cold in there. At some point we also need to try to gently give Esther herself a bath to try to improve her appearance.

There were lots of other things too, but I've run out of time to blog!